Putin Regime Exiles Pussy Riot Rocker to Siberia

The Guardian reports that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been exiled to a remote prison colony in Siberia. She is one of the members of Pussy Riot, the Russian punk band that has become an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin’s oppressive government. She had gone “missing” from her prison about 10 days ag

Now, Putin is going full Soviet to shut her up and intimidate other critics.

Tolokonnikova’s husband, Petya Verzilov, said he had received “100% reliable” information that she was being moved to a prison in the Krasnoyarsk region, four time zones and 2,000 miles from Moscow. The specific prison is not yet known, said Verzilov, but early indications suggest that it will be Prison No 50 in Nizhny Ingash, a further 200 miles from the regional centre of Krasnoyarsk.

Verzilov said he believed the move was punishment for Tolokonnikova’s public statements, and decision had been taken to remove her from the media spotlight as much as possible.

“They do not have the ability to put on the usual psychological or physical pressure they can use with inmates because of the high profile of the case,” he said. “So they have chosen this as the punishment instead.”

Tolokonnikova was moved after going on hunger strike over conditions in her women’s prison camp, located in the region of Mordovia. In an open letter, she described a slave-like forced-labour routine, with 17-hour working days and an array of sadistic punishments. The conditions she described were reminiscent of Soviet-era Gulag literature, and sparked a huge debate both inside Russia and internationally.

The news actually broke last night, but so far the Obama administration has said nothing about it.

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.